Join the Virtual SITLA Board meeting

this Thursday, August 13, 2020 @ 10 am.

US Oil sands went bankrupt and defaulted on payments to SITLA.

Remember SITLA? They control Utah School Trust Lands therefore including leases for waste disposal, fracking, grazing, mining  and strip mines for coal and oil.  Recently SITLA claimed limited interest in Solar Power applications.  Is this changing? 

Listen, Watch, and Make a Comment on ZOOM. 

SITLA will hold a monthly board meeting on Thursday August 13 at 10 am.

See the agenda here with instructions.

SITLA land on Seep Ridge road should be restored to the Ute tribe. It is part of the Uncompahgre reservation stolen through the dawes act.

Public comment is encouraged and occurs at the beginning of the meeting

You can register now or by 9:50 am Thursday if possible. 

You can also submit a written comment.  

UTSR filed a lawsuit against SITLA

UTSR fought for public accountability and transparency from SITLA. By filing a lawsuit against the SITLA Board and Exec. Director David Ure for their lack of transparency and accountability.

Utah Tar Sands Resistance does direct action AND attends SITLA board meetings.

Here is how it happened.  In January 2018 SITLA  (School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration), held a Board Meeting and Retreat where they mistakenly handed me a Confidential Agenda. Most importantly, the SITLA Board’s use of a confidential agenda was a serious violation of the Utah Open Public Meetings act (OPMA). Therefore, after hours of research, talking to attorneys and help from many sources, I sued SITLA myself and on behalf of Utah Tar sands Resistance for  the OPMA violation. See the lawsuit here: Cordray vs SITLA

Yipee!

SITLA acknowledged mistakes and makes some improvements

In the year since I have met with attorneys for SITLA several times and sought many improvements to SITLA’s public meeting process.  As a result of this lawsuit SITLA has corrected earlier mistakes and is proposing a settlement agreement for SITLA to follow and exceed OPMA requirements. We are currently continuing to negotiate an agreement with SITLA to settle this lawsuit. 

SITLA director David Ure

We have had a lot of movement and improvement on virtual meetings. For instance  SITLA agreed to make all board members visible on the screen at the same time (gallery view). Also they now allow live public comment during the meeting including verbatim reading of written comments into the record by SITLA staff. Other areas of focus have been the requirements for specificity of the agenda and proper public notice as well as applying the specificity to the closed meeting topics on public agendas. 

I hope you will join me this Thursday, August 13, 2020 @ 10 am for the Virtual SITLA Board meeting.  You can register now or by 9:50 am Thursday if possible.